Formula 1 will be entering a brand-new regulatory era come the start of 2026, and it got us thinking: What have been some of the craziest F1 rules in the history of the sport?
Today, we’re taking a look — from the sport’s wild double-points experiment to its dropped races. And don’t worry; the wild history of qualifying rules will be getting its very own post!
10 crazy F1 rules
Dropped races
For the majority of Formula 1’s history, not every race counted toward the World Championship.
Even if a driver competed in every single race during a season, only a specific number of results would count toward the championship, and that number changed on a fairly regular basis.
For example, in 1950, only four of the season’s seven rounds would count toward a driver’s final points total. In 1967, that format became more complex; nine of the season’s 11 events counted for the title, but eligibility was determined in such a way that meant five of the first six races counted, while four from the last five races counted.
Why? Well, there were a few reasons.
When F1 first kicked off, it needed to include a non-European event on its calendar in order to justify calling itself a ‘World’ Championship. The most prominent non-European event at that time was the Indianapolis 500, so, the FIA added that event to the calendar even though it was run with different cars and by a completely different set of rules.
There was no expectation that a Grand Prix driver would compete at Indy, so race dropping was partially a logistical necessity.
But in an era of unreliability and a fairly amateur approach to motorsport, race-dropping also allowed teams and drivers to compensate for things like mechanical failures or injuries.
It wasn’t until 1991 that Formula 1 and the FIA decided that every race counted toward the championship.
Double points
For some terrible reason, the FIA and Formula 1 decided to issue double points for the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — the final race of the year that was also set to be a title decider between Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
The stated goal here was to heighten the excitement of the championship battle by making it very likely a title would only be decided during that double-points finale.
Heading into the weekend, Hamilton had 334 points to Rosberg’s 317, and under the normal points system, Hamilton would have taken the title so long as he finished sixth or better. But the double-points format meant that he needed to finish second or better to guarantee the crown. In the end, he won the race.
No one was a fan of the double points. Caterham boss Tony Fernandes called it a “fake fix”. Adrian Newey said it would cheapen Formula 1. Vijay Mallya of Force India claimed the format was “illogical”. Mercedes’ Toto Wolff branded it as unfair. Ferrari called it artificial.
The format never returned.
When Formula 1 became Formula Two
Coming into the close of 1951, Formula 1 and the FIA began to get anxious. Very few teams had signed up for the new season, as they were growing concerned that they weren’t going to be able to keep up with the expenses of professional racing.
So, rather than push forward on the innovation front, the FIA determined that, for 1952 and 1953, Formula 1 would actually be contested with Formula Two-spec machinery.
The goal was to encourage greater participation, but as it turned out, only Ferrari developed a car with the F2 regulations in mind, which resulted in domination for Ferrari and back-to-back World Championships for Alberto Ascari.
Coming into 1954, maximum engine displacement was again increased to 2.5 liters, bumping up power by 150 per cent and attracting new constructors in the process. It would be the only time F1 regressed to F2 rules.
Formula 1’s original superlicense
In modern Formula 1, superlicenses are required for any driver looking to compete in the pinnacle of open-wheel racing. We know that, in order to be eligible, drivers must be of a certain age, have scored 40 superlicense points in previous championships, and display a certain level of operational knowledge.
But the original superlicense application issued in 1982 looked completely different, and Niki Lauda pointed out some concerning clauses: The superlicense was issued to a specific driver based on that driver signing with a specific team. In effect, that meant that a driver’s superlicense could be revoked mid-season if he were to swap from one team to another.
Further, the agreement banned drivers from words or actions “which might harm the moral or material interests” of Formula 1 — a vague statement that Lauda imagined could be used against drivers very easily.
Lauda informed Grand Prix Drivers Association head Didier Pironi, and together they organized a boycott of the South African Grand Prix. While that original superlicense agreement was scrapped, the drivers who took action were fined $5,000 each.
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Grooved tyres make a comeback
When Formula 1 first kicked off in the 1950s, grooved tyres were the standard, with slick tyres largely being confined to the world of drag racing.
Why? Well, tyre technology was still in its infancy at the time. This was the era before specialization and performance optimization, so while there were a variety of different tyre manufacturers to choose from, they all featured grooves for traction.
In 1971, Firestone introduced the first slick tyre to Formula 1, which provided better grip in dry conditions. But in 1998, grooved tyres were made mandatory.
The primary goal with the grooved tyres was to slow down the cars that had grown extremely quick, but anyone who follows Formula 1 knows that its engineers are capable of designing around any perceived limitation — and slick tyres were finally reintroduced in 2009 after the move to grooves failed to result in any significant speed decrease.
Drivers must commit to one helmet design
In 2015, the FIA banned in-season driver helmet design changes in one of the most perplexing mandates in modern F1 history.
The FIA claimed that the whole goal was to guarantee that fans could recognize drivers from one weekend to the next during an era where competitors like Sebastian Vettel debuted special helmet designs throughout each season. Drivers could tweak their helmets, but “substantial” alterations were forbidden.
Many fans were annoyed. The sport had just made the swap to permanent numbers that drivers would choose to represent them for the duration of their career, which they argued should be more than enough. Others, however, pointed out that the legacy of drivers like Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, James Hunt, and Ayrton Senna were defined in part by their signature helmet designs; therefore, expecting fans to keep up with Vettel’s latest design could be both challenging and annoying.
The decision was scrapped five years later, ahead of the abbreviated 2020 season.
Bringing back a point for fast lap
Between 1950 and 1959, Formula 1 drivers who set the fastest lap during a race were awarded one bonus point toward their championship total. At that time, that single point was instead awarded to the driver who finished sixth; previously, only the first through fifth finishers scored points.
But in 2019, Formula 1 decided to bring back the fastest lap point. There were stipulations: The driver had to finish in the top 10 in the race in order to qualify for the point.
Formula 1 and the FIA claimed that it was a way to legitimize the heroic late-race efforts by certain drivers to do something valuable in a race where they may have otherwise have performed worse than expected. They also claimed that it was a great way to add an extra layer of strategic excitement.
As it turned out, it just turned into a source of frustration. Drivers could ‘steal’ the fastest lap from a competitor, and pole position on Saturday was incentive enough to pull out some ultra-quick laps.
Limits on Free Practice
Weekend formats in Formula 1 have changed so regularly that F1’s crazy qualifying rule changes will get its very own post! But Free Practice itself has faced some wild changes.
Take 1997, for example. That season, the sporting regulations mandated that there were to be two practice sessions two days before a Grand Prix — aka, Friday — but during that time, drivers could only complete 30 laps per day. That limit wasn’t lifted until 1998, and the current practice of three practice sessions ahead of each season wasn’t put into place until 2006.
Team orders bans
So infuriated were the FIA and Formula 1 at the result of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix — where Ferrari ordered Rubens Barrichello to let his teammate by — that they instituted an immediate ban on team orders that interfered with race results from 2003 on.
Interestingly, race-altering team orders have been in Formula 1 for decades. Back in 1955, for example, Juan Manuel Fangio was asked to move over for Stirling Moss to allow the British driver to win at Aintree. Plus, back then, it was totally possible for drivers to take over a teammate’s car mid-race — and that usually meant the ‘lesser’ driver was required to pull over and cede his car to the ‘better’ driver through to the finish.
But Schumacher’s win through team orders in Austria came with huge amounts of backlash, in large part because both drivers were frustrated by the move.
The “ban” was only a ban in the sense that it forbade obvious finagling with the running order; instead, many engineers opted to use coded language to imply what they’d like a driver to do — like Rob Smedley’s radio message to Felipe Massa that “Fernando is faster than you” at the 2010 German Grand Prix.
By 2010, the FIA was willing to admit that the ban wasn’t exactly working, since it was nearly impossible to police. By 2011, bans on team orders had been scrubbed from the sporting regulations
Sprint races
We couldn’t end a discussion of crazy rules without talking about the introduction of the sprint race.
In an effort to pack in as much racing as possible during an F1 weekend, the FIA introduced sprint races at select weekends back in 2021 — three at first, then a total of six the following years. In effect, the race was basically an abbreviated Grand Prix, where the checkered flag would wave before any pit stops were necessary, and where a shortened qualifying session would determine the grid.
The format of the sprint weekend has evolved over the years, but plenty of fans have been scratching their heads at its necessity since it was first introduced.
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